CV

Pekka Himanen

Introduction

Pekka Himanen’s research work has been translated into 20 languages. His best-known work is The Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the Information Age which has been compared to Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Manuel Castells and others. Castells also writes: “Pekka Himanen's theory of the hacker culture as the spirit of informationalism is a fundamental breakthrough in the discovery of the world unfolding in the uncertain dawn of the third millennium.”

Himanen’s research work has been published by the world’s leading academic publishers, such as Oxford University Press. He has authored or been a writer in:

The Information Society and the Welfare State: The Finnish Model (Oxford University Press 2002; 10 languages)

The Network Society: From Knowledge to Policy (John Hopkins University 2005; 2 languages)

Aftermath: The Cultures of the Economic Crisis (Oxford University Press 2012)

Reconceptualizing Development in the Global Information Age (Oxford University Press 2014; 3 languages)

Examples of comments by leading academics on the above works include:

Reconceptualizing Development in the Global Information Age (2014)"This book will definitely make Dignity the most creative and respected word in the twenty-first century’s vocabulary, as Solidarity was in the nineteenth and Reason in the seventeenth.” –Alain Touraine, Professor of Sociology Emeritus, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
“This book stands out as one of the most provocative insights into the impact of the Global Information Age on all dimensions of the human experience. … This book is a landmark in the area of human sciences.” –Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Former President of Brazil

The Aftermath: The Cultures of the Economic Crisis (2012)
“The discussion of the crisis of global capitalism offered in this book marks a breakthrough.” –Anthony Giddens

The Network Society: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (2004)
"Because of its analytical aims and a well-balanced presentation of empirical findings and theoretical insights coming from a remarkable variety of authors, this is a book that might become a model for collaborative research in the years to come" –International Sociology, Review of Books

Himanen is one of the internationally most cited researchers in his field: his international works have been cited more than 4000 times (cf. Google Scholar citation index where you can check any researcher’s number of international citations).

In line with the original form of philosophy, Himanen considers not only written but also spoken philosophy central. In his lecturing at Aalto University Studio Stage and Helsinki University Grand Auditorium, he systematically developed new formats for spoken philosophy while he was a professor at Aalto. He has given talks in 30 countries from Oxford to Berkeley. Examples from the range of talks include:

Strategic advise talk for the Government of Bhutan, hosted by the Prime Minister, Thimphu, 2011

Dialog on the Culture of Dignity, with Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, Slush, November 2016 [link]

Himanen seeks to approach his topics in a more synthetic way, in a manner in which the research work on the philosophy of the information age can also be applied to the actual advancement of his philosophical goal: a dignified life. For this reason, in addition to his research work, he has also been broadly in direct dialog with different sectors of society: from policy-makers to the general public, some examples of such wider outreach being his articles for TIME Magazine and The Financial Times or public intellectual dialogs covered by The San Francisco Chronicleand Helsingin sanomat.

PhD in Theoretical Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, University of Helsinki, 1994

Main Awards and Recognitions

Global Leader for Tomorrow – by the World Economic Forum, 2003

Young Global Leader – by the World Economic Forum, 2005

Governmental Award for exceptional teaching achievements, giving a university course that gathered an audience of over 10.000, 1995 (Valtion tiedonjulkistamispalkinto)

Helsinki University Alumnus of the Year 2007, for achievements in advancing science

Membership of selected international research networks

World Economic Forum, Global Leaders for Tomorrow 2003-2004

World Economic Forum, Young Global Leaders 2005-2012

World Economic Forum, Global Agenda Councils 2008–2010

World Economic Forum, Expert Network 2016–

Policy Network, 2005–2010

The Club of Rome, 2012-

Selected key research projects (2000–)

Co-Director of the Sustainable development model in the information age research project with Manuel Castells. Members of the research group included AnnaLee Saxenian, You-tien Hsing, Fernando Calderon, Nico Cloete, and Isidora Chacon. Part of this time was at UC Berkeley as a Visiting Scholar. This research work produced the book Reconceptualizing Development in the Global Information Age (Oxford University Press, 2014).

Member of the Aftermath research network on the global economic crisis, with professors Manuel Castells, Craig Calhoun, John Thompson, Michel Wieviorka, Sarah Banet-Weiser, Terhi Rantanen, Rosalind Williams, João Caraça, and Gustavo Cardoso. This research group produced the book Aftermath: The Cultures of the Economic Crisis (Oxford University Press, 2012).

Member of the Zaragoza International Expert Committee on urban and regional development with professors Manuel Castells, Saskia Sassen, Peter Hall, Dennis Frenchman, François Bar, Michael L. Joroff, Véronique Kleck, Ángela López (and formerly William Mitchell and Guido Martinotti). The publications building on this work include the World Policy Journal article "The New Incubators" (2011).

Member of the Lisbon research network that produced the book The Network Society: From Knowledge to Policy (John Hopkins University, 2005). With Manuel Castells, Dale Jorgensen, Luc Soete, Geoff Mulgan and others.

Director of the Berkeley Center for Information Society, with Jerome Feldman, Steven Weber, Orpheus Crutchfield et al. as members and Linus Torvalds as a member of the research board, and Principal Scientist at the Helsinki Institute of Information Technology. During this time e.g. the book The Network Society: A Cross-Cultural Perspective (Edward Elgar, 2004) was produced.

Research project on the Information Society and the Welfare State as a Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley, which resulted in the book The Information Society and the Welfare State: The Finnish Model with Manuel Castells (Oxford University Press, 2002).

Research on the Hacker Ethic as a Visiting Scholar of UC Berkeley, which led to the publication of the book The Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the Information Age with Manuel Castells and Linus Torvalds in 2001.

Selected key academic publications (2000–)

The Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the Information Age. New York: Random House, 2001.

“The Nordic Model of the Information Society: The Finnish Case” in Palme, Joakim and Kangas, Olli (eds.) Social Policy in Late Industrializers: The Nordic Countries. United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, 2004.

The Nordic model of the information society: the Finnish case. Social policy and economic development in the Nordic countries, 2005.

the Sustainable development model research project, partly at UC Berkeley as a Visiting Scholar

they benefited from the future work done simultaneously in other networks, such as the Club of Rome

University lecturing as Professor of Aalto University

The following lectures have typically been fully packed and ended with a standing ovation, such as for example the Helsinki University Grand Auditorium lectures that have had more than 1000 registered participants.

Helsinki University and Aalto University cooperation courses

(as the University of Helsinki Alumnus of the Year and as a Professor of Aalto University)

Oxford University, Oxford Internet Institute, talk on The Information Society and the Welfare State, November 2002

London School of Economics, Systems and Innovation Group, October 2011

London School of Economics, talk on The Information Society and the Hacker Ethic, 2001

Policy Network, talk on the Inequalities in the Information Society, Selsdon Park, May 2006

United States

University of California Berkeley, the Web Rush conference keynote talk on the Hacker Ethic with Linus Torvalds, April 1999 (and several talks since that as a Director of the Berkeley Center for Information Society and a visiting scholar of the UC Berkeley)

University of California Berkeley, International Computer Science Institute, March 2001 (and several other talks, as a visiting scholar of UC Berkeley and as the director of the Berkeley Center for Information Society)

Yale University, talk on The Hacker Ethic, March 2001

MIT Media Lab, talk on The Hacker Ethic, March 2001

University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication, The Hacker Ethic as the Culture of the Information Age, October 2003

New York University, Center for Advanced Technology, The Hacker Ethic, January 2001

International forum talks in Finland (for European or global forums)

World Bank, InfoDev Global Forum keynote talk, Helsinki, May 2011

Bright Conference keynote talk for students of the leading European universities, Helsinki University, Grand Auditorium, August 2008

World Social Forum in Helsinki, April 2005

European Centre for Parliamentary Research & Documentation, A Visionary’s Address, Parliaments on the Net, keynote, Helsinki, March 2002

Policy Network talk on the European Social Model with Anthony Giddens, 2006 [link]

Other research-related networks: Global Dignity

Professor Himanen is a Co-Founder of the Global Dignity initiative in 2005, with Crown Prince Haakon of Norway and John Hope Bryant, a member of President Obama’s advisory council on financial capability. It has operated in over 50 countries worldwide. Global Dignity initiative includes Nobel laureates Professor Amartya Sen, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, President Martti Ahtisaari as well as Sir Richard Branson and Ambassador Andrew Young as its Honorary Board members.

Selected talks on dignity that have been given on all continents include:

Strategic guidelines for what Finland needs for a sustainable basis for the culture of creativity

a small country's only way is research and development investment: 4% of GDP, including an emphasis in basic science

combined with the best education system by investment in, and renewal of, it: integrating the culture of dignity deeply in it

differentiation through culture: after a long technology focus, investment must now additionally be increased in humanities and arts, by a +5% real increase per year throughout the 2010s; science, arts, and culture are ends in themselves, not only means

culture of enlightened leaders and patrons: tax exempt donations for science and arts

investment in the open-source culture: including public spaces and commons

There have been several books, novels, poems, plays as well as TV shows written on or with the figure “Pekka Himanen”, including e.g. the theatre play Cherished Disappointments in Love by Jouko Turkka, performed in Finland and London (Soho Theatre).